Swiss museum pulls down works by artists like Monet, van Gogh as origin of Nazi-looted art examined

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss museum on Thursday pulled down five paintings, including a van Gogh and a Monet, after the foundation that owns them called for a deeper look at their origins following new U.S. guidelines on how to handle artworks once confiscated by the Nazis.

The Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, which owns the works formerly shown at the Kunsthaus Zürich museum, said it was looking to reach a “fair and equitable solution” with the legal successors of the former owners, who were not identified.

The foundation’s board called for a new assessment of the works under new “best practices” published by the U.S. State Department in March on how to deal with Nazi-confiscated art, as an upgrade to principles adopted in 1998.

The works include the oil paintings “Jardin de Monet à Giverny” by Claude Monet from 1895, and “Der alte Turm” by Vincent van Gogh, of 1884.

A sixth painting, Edouard Manet’s “La Sultane,” was also considered as “a case deserving particular attention,” the foundation said in a statement last Friday.

It said it was ready to make a financial contribution to the estate of Max Silberberg, a German Jew and art collector who died with his wife at the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, in connection with the Manet out of respect to his “tragic destiny.”

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